We were sitting around the large round table of the tower’s second floor. The solar-replacing crystals had pierced the horizon an hour ago, and a nice old lady had brought us some breakfast in bed. It had been basic but pleasant, a fruit juice that felt like a mix of apples and mangoes, and pieces of bread with butter. The old lady, dressed in simple garbs, hadn’t stayed, and I hadn’t even gotten her name to thank her. The only thing she had said was that we were expected to partake at the assembly in one hour, on the floor below.
Kan and Rik were already seated when we arrived. They had taken the seats just outside the stairwell we emerged from. Gaëlle and I sat on the chairs to their right. Rik gave us a quick hello as we passed by him, and I noticed that he had a large ink pot with a plume and a bunch of blank parchments placed next to him. Once comfortably set, or at least as comfortably as possible, I checked the people in the room. The only other familiar faces in the room were Kan’s second-in-command Louis, and Jonas, who Rik quickly told us represented the Canvas village’s farmers.
Three more people were gathered here with us. Three adult females, two humans and an elf, each one extremely different from one another. Sitting in front of Kan was a sixty-year-old woman, her skin rough and brown from working out in the sun her whole life, in this case, crystals, and who looked somehow familiar. Her gaze was heavy and sorrowful. She was dressed like any other villager, the only difference in her clothing was an amulet around her neck, showing a large dark feather, a tooth, two rocks and a small sculpted naked man. It felt like a talisman of some sort. Not far from her was the second woman. She was in her forties, and she looked like a bimbo. It wasn’t to be insulting or demeaning, I just couldn’t describe her any other way. Long blonde hair, rather pale skin compared to almost everyone else, and dressed in chic but way too pink clothing. She had barely any make-up on, which was the only redeeming thing about her appearance, in my opinion.
The third one was the elf. But she was very much unlike anyone else I had ever met. While the [Wood Elves] were small and with brown skin, this one was very tall, and as pale as Gaëlle had been in her old body, much paler than the bimbo woman. It felt like she had hidden from the sun for years. But she wasn’t fat nor looking unhealthy. Honestly, she was captivating. Her ears were also two or three centimetres longer than the [Wood Elves] and the way she had entered the room and had sat alone on one side of the table had been so graceful I would have believed her if she had told me she was a princess of some sort. Her only flaw was a slightly crooked nose, as if it had been broken in the past and reset wrongly.
It felt almost wrong to see her wear the simple tunic and long dress of the villagers.
“Did you have a good night’s sleep?” Kan asked us respectfully.
His question pulled me away from my people-staring.
“Very well, thank you.” I responded in the same tone.
“Same here.” Gaëlle added with much less decorum.
“Perfect. I believe no one would feel inconvenienced by letting Nielle and Elle occupy a wing of the tower during the remainder of their stay here?” Kan asked the others around the table.
“No.” Louis shook his head. “I don’t see an issue.”
No one else said anything.
“Well, that’s…” Kan began before being interrupted by the bimbo. It felt horrible to call her that, but even her voice sounded too high-pitched.
“How long will they stay exactly? I want to get Henry’s stuff out of the tower. To sell it, build some funds to renovate. So on, so on.”
“This is Sarda, elected representative of our merchants.” Rik whispered to us.
“Who the hell’s idea was that?” Elle responded in hushed disbelief.
“Don’t underestimate her. She’s a complete idiot, except when it’s about money.” Rik provided us.
Kan coughed as he looked towards his son. It seemed he had heard the comment. The elf [Soldier] turned back to Sarda.
“Well, you can begin the reappropriation of the belongings as of now, as long as you don’t disturb those two’s room. They have taken the concubine chamber.”
“Urgh.” Elle grimaced at that piece of knowledge.
“It was pretty obvious.” I smiled nervously at her.
“Still. Urgh.”
“Belongings?” Sarda asked, blinking wildly.
“…You can take Henry’s stuff. But not in the concubine room.” Kan repeated more simply.
“Gotcha, gotcha. No problems for me then.”
At least she wasn’t doing the bimbo voice. Just an exaggerated high-pitched one.
Why was I trying to find her excuses?
“So that is…” But Kan was once again interrupted.
“I have something to say to those two ladies.” The elder stopped him.
He gulped audibly, clearly taken more aback by the old woman than the merchant representative. He almost looked pained as he said those next words.
“Of course, Huna.”
She gave him a gentle smile.
Then I felt her gaze fall on the both of us.
“The one with dark hair is Nielle, and the one with brown hair is Elle, am I right?”
Me and my sister exchanged a look before turning our attention back to the Elder.
“That is correct.” L told her.
“I am Huna. I have been presented as the Elder, but it is not through this role that I talk to you now. I talk to you as a mother.”
I clenched my sister’s hand under the table. The air had suddenly become oppressive.
“I have lost both my sons, my grand-children and my daughter-in-law to the tamed pet of a mad man. I am a broken woman, forever lost in grief. I shall never breathe without pain in my heart, shall never find peace until I join my children in the Beyond.”
I stared at her, finally seeing her for who she was. She was hunter Torgal’s mother. Also, the mother of the family who had been killed in the house destroyed by the giant crow weeks ago.
In her eyes I saw… It felt too much like my own grief. I lowered my head.
She kept silent, and I looked back up.
Her eyes showed conflicting emotions, so many things happening in them.
“Is one of you a mother?” She asked.
Kan coughed artificially. “Is this really the moment?” He was trying to protect us, stop us from being questioned. It was nice of him, but I did see through the act and understand he was doing it so we would stay on good terms with the village.
“There is no wrong moment to talk about our children, Kan Mor.” She answered him without even giving him a glance.
He looked away, out of arguments already.
To his credit, what could you answer to that?
“I’m not…but Nielle…well in a way…” Gaëlle started to answer.
“I had a daughter.” It felt like a whisper escaping my lips.
The old woman stared right at me like I had stared right at her.
Deep, painful understanding.
“What was her name?”
“Lila.” A clench in my hand.
“Then you understand. You’re the only one here who understands. There are no words to tell you what I feel. How the crow and Henry’s death relieved my pain yet didn’t help it at all…”
There was a profound silence after that.
It was broken by the laughter of children playing in the plaza below.
She finally finished what she wanted to say, her voice void of trembling or doubt. “Thank you. If you ever need something, simply ask, you will always find my support around this table, for as long as I and the remainder of my family live. That is all.” She rose to her feet and started to leave.
“Elder!” Kan stood up. “Wait please, what about the reunion? We need your wisdom to…”
“Young boy. My wisdom is lost in a sea of grief, I am going back home to rest.”
The [Wood Elf] clenched his teeth, but then bowed deeply. “Of course Elder, please rest well.”
The old woman opened the door to leave and was immediately joined by a much younger woman behind it, probably her remaining daughter or granddaughter.
Kan sat back down as the door was closing.
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“Well then.” He took a moment to recompose himself. “I will go in order of priorities, going from least important to most. What do we do about Henry’s riches? I gained five-hundred thousand coins when I looted his body.”
The bimbo merchant whistled in appreciation. “Almost twice what I had thought! Sneaky bugger. Well, why not use it to rebuild the tower?”
“I think we have more urgent things to focus on.” Kan replied.
“Like improving our walls.” Louis proposed.
But Sarda countered the argument with a mocking laugh. “Please, as if it’s going to matter. If we can wait for Solace and employ a three-month team for the walls, then it’ll mean we don’t need better walls.”
Louis opened his mouth, then closed it down. “That is true.”
“Pff. Men, too dumb to use money.” Commented the pink-wearing woman.
“Pfrrr.” My sister was trying her best to hold her laughter.
“What about redistributing the money to everyone in the village? With Kan, Louis and Rik getting a bonus because they were responsible for the kill?” Sarda proposed.
Kan gave an expression like he couldn’t believe what he was going to say. “That…seems like a good idea.”
But the pale elf, who hadn’t yet spoken, disagreed.
“I see what you’re doing, Sarda.” She gave a sharp look at the pink-wearing lady.
“Vi! I had forgotten you were there! How are you?” I couldn’t tell if the bimbo was genuine or sarcastic.
“Don’t act surprised with me when most of the money falls back in your hands. I am no fool.” The elf apparently named Vi had a flat tone, but even with the cold seeping through her words, there were some melodious undertones, as if she had done theatre or speech classes to appear more charismatic.
“Why are you here, exactly?” Sarda responded, unphased.
“I asked. Kan accepted.” Vi retorted prosaically.
“What exactly are you talking about though, Vi?” Kan demanded. “What’s that about the money?”
Vi sighed, and started to answer, but Gaëlle was faster.
“If you give everyone a sudden money income, chances are high that they’ll spend it. And if Sarda here represents the merchants, well, she’s definitely one of those who’ll benefit the most of such a cash inflow.”
The [Wood Elf] blinked wildly as he digested the information. He then gave the merchant a stern look.
“Sarda please, we need to work together here and…”
“I didn’t say it was bad, though.” Elle interrupted him. “If the merchants have money, they’ll be able to buy better goods, propose jobs. It would be good for the whole village, and it’ll boost the morale of everyone to get a bit of money.”
“That’s not just a bit of money!” Sarda replied. “But you seem smart. Is your daddy a merchant? A pedlar perhaps?”
“Is my daddy…? Sorry but the only people I call daddy…” My sister started answering with no thought at all about where we were, so I crushed her foot with my heel.
“Aouch! Fuck! Fine! She’s the one who started it!” She glared at me.
Aaaand…everyone was looking at us weirdly.
“Don’t introduce capitalism in a medieval world, please. We can’t even make it work.” I whispered, completely ignoring the lightning she was sending me with her eyes.
“Fuck you shithead.” But she did not comment anymore.
“Nielle? Elle?” Kan asked in worry.
I gave him an apologetic smile. The poor [Soldier] really was out of his depths trying to supervise this meeting, and even I was failing to help with that. “Apologies, but we’ll like to keep our origins secret.” I began explaining to Sarda.
“Because anyone who has two eyes would immediately spot that you two are not nobles at all.” The tall elf cut me off. She was looking straight at me, heavy suspicion in her eyes.
“What does that mean?” Louis and Jonas asked together. The middle-aged farmer continued. “Those two ladies come from the Upperseas. Kan assured me of it. Do you claim otherwise, stranger?” He spoke rudely to the elf.
“Vi, that is definitely outside this current discussion…” Kan began.
“Do you think it is not important to be aware that those two are trying to impersonate power they do not possess?” The elf answered adamantly.
“And how exactly would you know such a thing, young girl?” Jonas retorted.
She winced. “I know. And I’m pretty certain Huna would have known as well if she was in her right mind.”
“I agree with you!” Sarda said joyously. “They are way too pretty to be nobles.”
This time, the elf gave away a full grimace. “…Thank you Sarda...” She refocused. “How I know for certain is my own business, but I believe…”
“This stops. Now.” Kan’s voice had changed radically. “I will not let you continue on this subject Vi. If this is why you came to this meeting, you may leave.”
Vi hiccupped, before immediately hiding her emotions. “You knew…?” She whispered, but not softly enough for me not to hear. Nonetheless, she recovered fast, her next sentences in a much calmer tone. “I apologize Kan Mor. I overstepped while being a stranger to this village myself. I only meant to keep the people of Canvas safe.”
“Apologies accepted.” Kan gave me and Elle a quick look.
He really needed us badly, such worry could not be faked.
“I think she’s hot for you.” Gaëlle said in untranslated English, in a whisper, completely ripping me away from my efforts to read the people in the room.
“What?” It took a lot of self-control to say that as silently as possible.
“The elf. Vi, look at her. Or maybe she’s into me. I suppose we look the same.”
Kan ignored us as he returned to the current affairs. “I ask that the bonus extends to Elle and Nielle, and then I shall agree with Sarda’s proposition.”
The bimbo smiled happily. “Sure! They deserve it. If we say that the bonus is double everyone else’s gain, that’ll make 895 coins for you and 443 coins for the rest of us.”
“That’s good to me.” Jonas nodded, a big smile on his lips.
“I agree as well. Louis?” Kan asked.
“Good to me boss.” The armoured man responded.
The old [Wood Elf] gazed at Vi, and I took the opportunity to do the same. She was still looking at me, and I saw the anger and puzzlement in her glare before she turned away.
“That’s what you call her being into me?” I whispered to my sister.
“Trust my gay antenna.”
“You’re bi.”
“Even more of a minority, my antenna is twice as performant.”
I blinked in complete befuddlement. “What???”
“Trust your sis.”
Before I could even try to respond to her absurdities, Kan continued his speech.
“Vi, do you have an opinion about our decision?”
“…I don’t believe I have a say in it.”
“As an impartial outsider, I would like to have your input on our decisions.”
That made me look back up. Why did Kan try to involve the elf, who if I had gotten things right wasn’t even from the village, in the decisions? My brain worked hard to register everything I could. How the elf moved, what she said. Why was she important here?
“No Kan Mor. I have nothing to say, I believe this is a good idea. If I could ask one thing though…” I saw her give us a glance.
Intelligence filled her eyes.
“Yes?” Kan said impatiently.
“Do I get some of the coins?”
“Well…”
Sarda interrupted the soldier once again.
“I counted you in, you suffered from Henry just like us. Hiding all the time must have been hard.”
Vi hummed, pleased.
“Well. I would like to give my bonus to the two heroes of Canvas then. As an apology for my prior behaviour.” She pointed at us.
Whatever I was expecting, that wasn’t it.
“Oh…well of course.” Kan nodded sideways.
“Good.” The elf smiled.
I was simultaneously charmed and terrified.
“So that’ll be 1116 for them both.” Sarda provided.
Kan sighed, looked towards Rik who was writing it all down on a piece of parchment, then the old [Soldier] continued the reunion.
“I suppose that’s it for our first issue. Now, we need to discuss what to do about the tower, what we need to tell the Solace council, and finally, how we organize the village’s defences.
I wasn’t interested in the conversation about the tower. I asked a few questions to Rik, but he had been given the role of scribe, and was too busy writing things down. Not everyone was illiterate, apparently, but looking at him struggle, this was definitely not his forte. One thing that piqued my interest was that every time they decided on something, Rik made sure to include Vi’s input. The elf didn’t add anything, content on just agreeing with what had been said.
When the conversation switched to the Solace council, I felt obligated to add something.
“Yes, Nielle?” Kan asked me as I tried to say something without interrupting him rudely.
“I have high suspicions that some members of the council were aware of what happened in this village, and even helped Henry with his schemes.”
That brought a short silence around the table, but no one seemed surprised. Well, no one except Sarda.
“What!? Those nuggets of [Poppi Monki] poop! But they promised they would help us!?”
Vi sighed. “They lied, Sarda.”
“Oh. Those lying nuggets of [Poppi Monki] poop!”
“…You don’t seem shocked.” I told Kan.
“No. I think we’re well aware that Henry would never have been able to do what he did without the council’s knowledge. But the fact that he was doing it secretly at least tells us that not everyone on the council agrees or is aware of what was happening.”
“So? What are you going to do?” Elle asked.
“Nothing. We’ll ask for help and act as if the councilmembers were never involved.”
“But…but we could bring proof?” My sister couldn’t believe that. “They are responsible for the death of…”
“We know that, young girl.” Jonas stopped her. “We know.”
Kan shook his head in sadness. “If you bring proof, the council will bicker and shatter from the inside. And while the Upperseas City breaks down in its usual political absurdities, we’ll be left here to die.”
Gaëlle couldn’t accept it. “So you’ll let it go?”
“Yes.” The words barely left Kan’s clenched mouth.
I pressed on my sister’s hand, and she didn’t add anything else. But I knew how horrified and furious she was.
“So, about the help we’ll ask to Solace. First the funds we’ll need for the tower…” Their conversation continued.
We stopped for lunch, the nice old lady from the morning bringing us once again a plain but tasty meal. There was even some ham, which I was sure was a luxury for the village.
After that, they arrived at the last point on their agenda. The village’s protection.
Kan quickly looked towards us. “Did you two make a decision?”
I nodded sideways. “Yes. Me and my sister have decided to help you, until Solace arrives. We will leave for the Upperseas City then.”
“Three weeks, ten hours and fifteen minutes from now, then.” Sarda said with a laugh. “How can you two help, exactly? You don’t look like strong, burly men.”
Kan tried to stop the questioning, but that we could answer. We had prepared the lie.
“We’ve got an inherited skill that lets us create a powerful explosive oil. That is how we killed the crow.” I replied.
“Oh. Cool. Can you sell it?”
“No.” Me and my sister responded instantly.
“Bummer. You sure?”
“Yes.”
The merchant pouted, but let it go.
“That is excellent news.” Kan expressed immense relief. “Could you tell us where you set up your traps so we can coordinate with my men?”
“We’ll follow Rik and your recommendation for placement.” Gaëlle answered.
The hunter almost jumped.
“What, me?”
“You’re the person with the highest [Trapping] skill here, right?” I reminded him.
“What? No Gro…I guess I am.”
“Very well. I shall consult with my son, and we’ll organize perimeters and traps. We had seven [Potti Monkis] last night. I expect bigger monsters tonight already. Unless we have an uncommon amount of fallen Krist Shards, the protection that the presence of the crow provided us will last for week, if we’re lucky.”
“Erm…It will take us time to make the oil. Tonight is impossible. And we need…”
“Yes, of course.” Kan understood what I was implying. “We will hold on for a few nights without issues. If you need to go back to your encampment in the woods, Rik is ready to escort you. There is no one better than him to carry you through the forest safely.”
“Thank you, Kan Mor.” I bowed.
They discussed one more hour about the details of how they were going to organize everything, then we were finally released from the endless reunion.
Jonas had already left with Louis when Kan addressed us again.
“Would you come to my home tonight to discuss how we organize the repartition of the oil, miss…do you have some sort of first food name? A family name perhaps? I never asked.”
A first what now? I hid my surprise as quickly as I could.
“Templier.” Gaëlle responded automatically.
Vi gave us a sharp look from the other side of the room. “That…is a powerful name. The class of one of your ancestors, perhaps?” She asked loudly enough to be heard.
“Erm…something like that.” My sister realized she may have made a mistake by revealing we had a family name.
“Well, Misses Templier, would you join me and my son over some food and drinks?” Kan prevented more questions.
“We’d gladly accept.” I answered him.
I felt the tall elf’s gaze dig down into my back. But she finally left the room, followed closely by Sarda.
“Vi!” Said the merchant representative. “Do you want to go eat something with me in Geralt’s Tavern? He reopened at night!”
“I’d rather…”
“You need to live a little, girl, all alone in that big house I lent you.”
“…I suppose I’ll accept.”
There was only me, my sister and the two [Wood Elves] left.
Kan relaxed slightly, as he addressed us again. “First, here are your coins. System, give Nielle and Elle Templier one thousand one hundred sixteen coins each.”
[Wood Elf] Kan Mor has given you 1116 coins
“Cool. What is that worth, exactly?” Gaëlle asked.
Kan shook his head.
“Any question you have, I will answer, as promised. But we will be disturbed if we stay here. I expect Sarda to send her men to take out most of Henry’s belongings tonight. I will not have much time after this evening, so it would be better for you to ask everything you want to know today at my house.”
“Lead the way.” I answered him.